Mad Dogs is officially canceled after 1 season. Amazon decided against renewing the drama for a second season, and the show’s executive producer, Shawn Ryan, made the announcement on Twitter in a series of tweets.
The series just released on Jan. 21 after several early production delays. There was very little promotion for the show, but it still earned many positive reviews. While Amazon does not release rating information, the show seemed to have earned strong viewership.
Mad Dogs is about a group of friends played by Ben Chaplin, Michael Imperioli, Romany Malco, and Steve Zahn whose celebration abroad in Belize quickly turns into an unexpected nightmare.
In his post, Ryan says that he and Cris Cole met with Roy Price, the head of Amazon’s programming, on Thursday. Despite Ryan and Cole pitching ideas for Mad Dogs season 2, Amazon told them on Friday they would not be pursuing a second season.
Ryan admits on Twitter that he and Cole intended the series’ arc to end after 10 episodes. Sony Pictures TV, which produced Mad Dogs, never backs down without a fight after its shows are canceled. But that might be rather difficult in this case because Deadline reports that the Mad Dogs actors have not been interested in extending their roles for a second season and instead are pursuing roles in pilots.
In case you don’t want to read Ryan’s statement in tweet form, here is his entire post below.
“Wanted to report that a decision was made not to make any more episodes of Mad Dogs.
We were lucky to be one the best reviewed dramas on Amazon, if not the best. A lot of critics got what we were going for, so thanks. Some Amazon employees told me that Mad Dogs, after only four weeks, already had better streaming stats than many other Amazon shows. So, thanks to the viewers for finding, embracing and binging the show. It’s been a blast to read your joy and shock on Twitter.
That said, Mad Dogs was originally intended to be a closed 10 episode limited series. Many critics pointed out that this wasn’t the kind of concept destined for an extended multi-season run, and that’s right. But in order to get Season 1 made Amazon wanted to know that future seasons might be possible. Cris Cole and I said we thought there could be but we should have that conversation on if and how after the season was over.
We had that conversation on Thursday with Roy Price and company. Cris and I laid out a story for Season 2 we believed in. Ultimately, Amazon didn’t want to make that story and we didn’t want to make the kind of story they wanted us to make, so it made more sense to declare victory after ten episodes, which was our original plan all along anyway.
Mad Dogs is extremely important to Cris and I and we can’t do the show any other way than to follow Cris’ vision.
Ultimately, I think it’s better to leave it there, pure and unsullied, than to do a watered down version of the show. I’m so proud of our 10 eps and how they turned out, despite the many obstacles in our way. Want to acknowledge Ben Chaplin, Michael Imperioli, Romany Malco and Steve Zahn. What talent and chemistry! Want to thank all our writers, directors and especially our ridiculously hard working Puerto Rican crew.
Especially want to thank Cris Cole who was a terrific collaborator. He stuck to his vision, morals and beliefs throughout. If you haven’t checked out Mad Dogs yet, I hope you will. It’s the full, complete crazy story we set out to tell over three years ago. Oops. A cat just walked in. Looks like I have to go. See you on the next one.”
The first and only season of Mad Dogs is available on Amazon Prime Video.